In August, a Conduit – a cross-border payment fintech that operates in more than 9 countries – received an investment of US$ 6 million from Helios Digital Ventures, the venture capital arm of Helios Investment Partners. With the investment, the company is driving its geographical expansion into Africa and strengthening its presence in Latin America, focusing on improving the speed and efficiency of transactions for its clients.
Bernardo Janot, Conduit Manager, explain that the company's operations in Latin America aim to provide international payment solutions that overcome the limitations of local banking systems. "Although countries like Brazil have efficient systems for domestic transactions", international transfers are still expensive and slow. In partnership with local banks, a startup offers a faster and more cost-effective process, allowing companies to send money in local currency, taking care of the transfer and currency conversion, thus ensuring transparency and lower costs for the recipient, comment.
Last year, the annualized transaction volume of Conduit exceeded US$ 9 billion, with an increasing value coming from Kenya and Nigeria, regions where it recently launched operations and experienced a 25% month-on-month revenue growth. Reflecting on this data, the fintech has an ambitious vision for its expansion in Africa and Asia. Ready to face the challenges of fragmented local currencies and complex connections, the company will invest in these new markets to achieve even greater profitability by the end of the year.
Local settlements are increasingly being built simultaneously, supported by cutting-edge technology. Companies demand a good experience when making global payments. Traditional methods often do not meet expectations. We are excited to support Conduit in its journey to better serve the South American and African ecosystems that connect to the global economy, says Wale Ayeni, partner-manager of Helios Digital Ventures, in a statement.
Shifts in focus and expansion to Brazil
Originally launched as an API to connect fintechs, neobanks and traditional financial institutions with cryptocurrency-backed earning products, Conduit shifted its focus after recognizing the pain points in B2B international payments of its own clients. Initially supported by US$ 17 million in funding from investors such as Portage Ventures, Diagram Ventures and Gradient Ventures, a startup developed tools for institutional investors based on decentralized finance (DeFi), that is to say, allowing direct transactions between users.
The CEO of Conduit, Kirill Gertman, declares: "Our mission is to make international B2B payments better. Companies must be able to convert currencies and settle payments more quickly, lower costs and better visibility than what is possible with traditional payment rails. We are committed to enabling this functionality for businesses worldwide, especially in fast-growing markets like Brazil.”
Globally, the fintech works with more than 80 direct clients, between importing and exporting companies, payroll services and other cross-border platforms. Based on the investment received, the pipeline is expected to reach the mark of 25 clients with a projection of moving approximately US$ 10 billion in the next 12 months, considering the two continents, being US$ 1 billion only in Brazil. A startup looks at sectors such as agriculture, textile, exporters, ports, CVs and, mainly, fintechs interested in cross-border issuances, without the use of digital currencies.
